Of course Cobb's colleagues, who played a decade before Ruth are going to go with their generation's star. Plus Ruth was primarily a pitcher for most of the dead ball era. Bottom line the stats don't lie.
Reality is Wagner had similar offensive production during the dead ball era and was hands down the best SS in baseball. Cobb wasn't even the best CF of his era (Speaker). SS is a much more premium position then CF. We know this by the lack of offensive production from SS in the HOF compared to OF. Cobb also played well into the live ball era while Wagner did not. Yet Cobb's only produced 3 seasons of 10 or more HR (12 2xs) towards the end of his career and he was no longer a great base stealing threat, getting caught about as frequently as he was successful. Regulating him to a station to station ball player towards the end.
Was Cobb the best singles hitter of his time, yes. Did his 76% successful base stealing ability allow him to dominate, yes. The total base aspect has to come into play. Ruth had more in alot fewer Ab's and his WAR reflects his value (183.1 to Cobb's 151.5). Ruth averaged a rbi 77% of the time he got a hit compared to 46% for Cobb. Runs are the most important thing in the game. No one drive in runs better then Babe.
I'll take Ruths total bases and RBIs in a shorter career over Cobb all day everyday. Cobb was great but his impact, by the numbers wasn't greater then Ruths. Why Ruth's WAR is the highest of all time.
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